Protective enclosure for drinking containers



Patented Mar. 11, 1952 PROTECTIVE EN CLOSURE FOR DRINKING CONTAINERS lHenry Coe Lanpher, Alexandrmva.

Application July 26, 1950, Serial No. 176,050

3 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in protective collars for usewith drinking containers.

Many persons are accustomed to place a drinking container or tumblercontaining water or other liquid on a table by their bed when theyretire sov that, they may satisfy their thirst conveniently during thenight.

The shape of conventional drinking containers tends to make them easilyaccidentally upset. This characteristic is particularly notable incertain modern drinking containers made of light-weight plastic materialwhose circularshaped bottom portions are of small diameter relative totheir height and whose side portions nare outwardly as they riseupwardly. Particularly for this last-described type, but also for otherstyles of conventional drinking containers, a relatively light impact onthe upper portion is suiiicient to upset the container. spill itscontents, and, if resting on a bedside table, perhaps cause it to fallto the floor. If made of glass, such a fall would be likely to break thecontainer. Such accidental impact is likely to occur from the hand of aperson who in the darkness reaches from his bed for his drinkingcontainer or for some other object on his bedside table.

Furthermore, when a person in bed in darkness seeks to replace hisdrinking container on his bedside table after drinking from it, he mayaccidentally set it down so that it strikes some other object on thetable or at a place where its bottom portion isv partly off the table,thus causing it to be upset, its contents spilled, and the containeritself, if made of glass, perhaps broken.

This invention provides a convenient, ornamental protective collar for adrinking container on a bedside table which is adapted to prevent such acontainer from being accidentally upset while resting on the table orVwhile being placed on the table.

Thus the first object of this invention is to provide a convenient andornamental protective collar for a drinking container of liquid restingonY a bedside. table to prevent the containers being accidentally upsetand its contents spilled.

A further object of this invention is to provide a protective collar fora drinking container which when a person encounters it in the darknessin reaching from his bed for is drinking container will guide his handupwardly and inwardly by a curved surface pleasant to the touch to wherehis hand will encounter the upper portion and rim of the container.

A further object of this invention is to provide a protective collaryfor a drinkingk container which when a person in the darkness reachesfrom his bed to replace a drinking container containing liquid on hisbedside table will present to his touch a curved surface pleasant to thetouch surrounding and leading upwardly and inwardly to a circular-shapedaperture in which to place the drinking container for its protection.

A further object of this invention is to provide a protective collar fora drinking container resting on a bedside table which will not normallycome regularly in contact with any portion of the surface of suchcontainer and thus will permit the container to rest in its normalposition in contact only with the surface of the table, and, whenneeded, to be freely lifted from this position of rest and removed fromwithin said collar and thereupon replaced on the supporting surfacethrough said collar without contact or friction between said containerand said collar.

A further object of this invention is to provide a protective collar fora drinking container which will be adapted for use with a plurality ofsizes and types of such containers.

A further object of this invention is to provide a protective collar fora drinking container of such a shape that when it rests on its baseportion on a horizontal supporting surface it will not be readilydislodged from this position.

Having reference to the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the protective collar for a drinkingcontainer according to my invention.

Figure 2 is a top plan view.

Figure 3 is a cross-section view on line 3--3 of Figure 2, showing theposition of a drinking container protected by the collar.

Figures 4 and '5 are fragmentary cross-section views showingmodifications of construction of the protective collar.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, a protective collar according to theinvention illustratively comprises a collar-like body of one-piece,substantially rigid construction having the general shape of a atteneddome when viewed in side elevation. Accordingly, the body has a sub.-stantially wide and at under surface I whereby it is adapted to reststably on a horizontal supporting surface and an outer hand-engag- `ingsurface 2 which curves upwardly' and inwardly to merge into an inneropen space ,3 defined by an axial through-bore. As seen in Fig.v 3, theinner space or b ore 3 has a vsubstantially vertical bore surface, i. e.it flares slightly in outward direction towards its upper edge or rim 4,and said bore is moreover slightly over.- size with relation to atumbler supported `on said .supporting surface independently of .the.body and about which the body is `disposed ,in

encircling relation. As further seen in Fig. 3, the vertical height ofthe body is somewhat greater than half the vertical height of thetumbler.

Accordingly, when related to a filled tumbler in the manner illustratedin Fig. 3, a protective collar of the invention serves tactually toguide the hand reaching to grasp said tumbler to a position in which itmay grasp the upper or rim portion of the tumbler which extends abovethe `edge 4. Should the hand inadvertently first strike the upperportion of the tumbler in a manner and with sufficient force as normallyto overturn the same, the collar, although permitting a small degree oftipping of the tumbler, precludes any excessive tipping 'thereof byproviding oppositely disposed and vertically spaced tumbler-engagingpoints or portions, the lower for the bottom edge of the tumbler and theupper for a point on the tumbler above its vertical middle line. Theoversizing of the inner space or bore 3 relative to the tumbler is alsoof advantage in that when the collar is forcefully struck by the handreaching for the tumbler, it may slide on the supporting surface alimited distance independently of the tumbler, with the result that thecollar takes the rst shock of the impact, with the movement of thecollar also giving a sensitory warning against further uncontrolled orforceful movement of the hand.

Figure 4 shows in fragmentary cross-section View a modification which isgenerally similar in form to that shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, exceptthat the under surface includes a portion which extends generallyupwardly and inwardly and then downwardly and inwardly to form a hollowspace 5. This hollow space serves to reduce the amount of materialneeded in the construction of the collar, and thus to reduce its weight.

Figure 5, also in fragmentary cross-section view, shows anothermodification. Here the cross-section shape of the upper-and-side surface2 is a convex curve in its upper portion 6 and a concave curve in itslower portion 7. Also in this xnodication the surface of the inner openspace 3 is shown to extend generally downwardly and outwardly from therim 4 instead of tapering downwardly and inwardly as in Figures 1, 2, 3,and 4, although said surface may be tapered as in Figure 3, for example.

From the above and the appended claims it will be evident that the broadpurpose of the invention, which is to protect a drinking container frombeing accidentally upset, is achieved through the existence of suitablerelationships between the size and height above the supporting surfaceupon which the protective collar rests of the circular-shaped rim 4 andthe shape and size respectively of the drinking container to be enclosedand protected.

The protective collar of this invention may be fabricated of anymaterial, such as wood, plastic material, metal, glass, hard rubber,sponge or foam rubber, or pottery, or of any combination of suchmaterials. If fabricated of foam rubber of fairly firm density, theslight pliability of the outer curved surface would to many personsprovide added pleasantness to the touch. Also, if the enclosure, or theportion of the enclosure which is designed to come in contact with thesupporting surface, is fabricated of foam rubber, sponge rubber, orother soft material. resistance to the lateral movement of the enclosureon the supporting surface would be increased and protection providedagainst the scratching of the supporting surface.

It will be evident that modifications of the enclosure other than thoseshown in the drawings are implicit in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. As an article of manufacture, a collarlike body of one-piececonstruction adapted when placed on a fiat surface supporting a lledtumbler and in encircling relation to said tumbler to preventoverturning thereof when the tumbler is struck by a hand reaching tograsp the same and tactually to guide the hand upwardly to a position inwhich it may grasp the portion of the tumbler extending above the body,said body having the general shape of a attened dome when viewed in sideelevation so as to provide an outer hand-engaging surface which curvesupwardly and inwardly and a substantially greater width at its bottomthan at its top whereby it is stable when supported on said flatsurface, and being provided with a vertical through-bore having asubstantially vertical bore surface and which is oversize with relationto the tumbler, whereby said tumbler may be freely raised from or placedon said supporting surface through the bore and may be tipped slightlywith respect to the body, and whereby said body may slide on thesupporting surface a limited distance independently of said tumbler whensaid body is struck by the hand, the vertical height of said body beingat least one-half of the vertical height of the tumbler but exposing asubstantial height of the tumbler for grasping thereof and whereby saidbody prevents excessive tipping of the tumbler by engaging the tumblerat opposite and vertically spaced points on the body, the upper of saidpoints being above the vertical middle line of said tumbler.

2. An article of manufacture as set forth in claim 1, wherein thethrough-bore is ared outwardly toward its upper end.

3. An article of manufacture as set forth in claim 1 wherein the curvedouter surface of the body includes a lower concave portion and a mergingupper convex portion.

HENRY COE LANPHER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le ofthis patentz UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date D. 32,025 StrugnellDec. 26, 1899 D. 110,902 Loesch Aug. 16, 1938 D. 114,551 Morgan May 2,1939 D. 138,593 Gulick Aug. 22, 1944 791,097 Jericho May 30, 1905929,389 Clement July 27, 1909 1,657,664 Dexter Jan. 31, 1928 1,858,728Creighton May 17, 1932 1,937,939 Behrens Dec. 5, 1933 2,240,842 Gehringet al. May 6, 1941 2,427,697 Weidler Sept. 23, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTSNumber Country Date 2,202 Great Britain Feb. 12, 1887 27,894 GreatBritain Dec. 22, 1908 430,582 Great Britain June 21, 1935 397,107Germany June 30, 1924

